Martin Shkreli to Be Jailed for Seeking a Hair From Hillary Clinton

Martin Shkreli, center, was convicted in August of three counts of fraud relating to two hedge funds and a pharmaceutical company he previously ran.Credit Louis Lanzano for The New York Times

Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical executive who is awaiting sentencing for a fraud conviction, was sent to jail on Wednesday after a federal judge found that he presented a threat to the community because he had offered money for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair.

Mr. Shkreli, who was free on $5 million bail while he awaited sentencing, offered $5,000 on Facebook to anyone who could “grab a hair” from Mrs. Clinton during her book tour.

“There has been a danger presented through this post,” Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto said at the hearing in Federal District Court in Brooklyn.

At the same hearing, Mr. Shkreli was scheduled to be sentenced in January. He most likely will not be released before then, unless his lawyers can show that he is not a threat.

Mr. Shkreli was convicted in August of three counts of fraud, relating to two hedge funds and a pharmaceutical company he previously ran.

Prosecutors, citing the Facebook post, wrote in a filing last week that Mr. Shkreli was becoming a public threat. The post also started a Secret Service investigation.

Although Mr. Shkreli edited the post to say that it had been satirical, and later took it down altogether, prosecutors wrote that “there is a significant risk that one of his many social media followers or others who learn of his offers through the media will take his statements seriously — as has happened previously — and act on them.”